Gay Soup - Gay Blog

So begins a piece (Girl Grassroots) in Patricia Nell Warren's newest book, My West. In this essay, the native Montanan explains her early fascination with Roosevelt, an affinity for Rhett Butler and the budding sense of her own sexuality.

My West is a treasure trove - it is an alternating almanac, biology text, history, travelogue, story book and memoir - and it is a delight to read. There is something here for everyone, regardless of geographic predisposition.

Patricia presented a program at the Autry National Center last week for Out West and she delighted the audience with her stories - including an excerpt from Girl Grassroots. Luckily, it was videotaped (in two parts), so you have the opportunity to watch her in action - and she's terrific.

The video is after the break. Enjoy!

Continue reading "When I Was Eight Years Old, I Fell in Love with Eleanor Roosevelt"...

I featured a video of the magnificent art of Paul Cadmus on my youtube channel but this one, by Augusto Mariante, is an exquisite tribute to this exceptional American artist.  It deserves way more hits!  Pass it along, but be careful because it could cause trouble in a prudish workplace. [Maybe NSFW]

Two beautiful images of the one and only Rudolph Nureyev, the purest, the most beautiful, and the most tragic ballet dancer the world has known.

This video about Being Alive, the organization for and run by people with HIV/AIDS, was produced in 1996, after the new AIDS drugs became available - but not for everyone, including some of these PWAs meeting in Silverlake.

This article was first published in the New York Native, Issue 59, March 14-27, 1983, and was the Larry Kramer scream heard around the world. Kramer, whose famous AIDS play The Normal Heart is currently in revival in New York City, co-founded the Gay Men's Health Crisis and ACT UP in 1987. This photo was taken during the 1993 March on Washington before the "hands around the Capitol" event. Please read Windy City Times publisher Tracy Baim's recent interview with Kramer for AIDS at 30.

Kramer's scream is below the break.

AIDS activist and playwright Larry Kramer at the 1993 March on Washington, with AIDS activist Michael Petrelis and an unknown woman (Photo by Karen Ocamb)

Continue reading "Larry Kramer's Historic Essay: AIDS At 30"...

Project Inform Director Martin Delaney's appearance in West Hollywood to discuss experimental AIDS medications drew praise and concern that the drugs wouldn't be available in time to help those who most needed them.

Among the most vile and virulent of gay-haters from 1979-1993 was Rep. William Dannemeyer from Orange County. On June 29, 1989, he read a statement into the Congressional Record entitled: "What Homosexuals Do:"

"activities peculiar to homosexuality include: Rimming, or one man using his tongue to lick the rectum of another man; golden showers, having one man or men urinate on another man or men; fisting or handballing, which has one man insert his hand and/or part of his arm into another man's rectum; and using what are euphemistically termed 'toys' such as one man inserting dildoes, certain vegetables, or lightbulbs up another man's rectum."

Dannemeyer backed anything antigay, including the ban in HIV-positive immigrants and Lyndon LaRouche's Proposition 64 in 1986 to quarantine people with HIV/AIDS. In 1989, his book Shadow in the Land: Homosexuality in America was distributed by a slew of antigay organizations, including the Traditional Values Coalition, which also distributed the antigay video from which this excerpt is taken:

Continue reading "Rep Dannemeyer Thinks AIDS Will Become Airborne"...

I found some great photos and background on the Sexual Freedom League, including this spontaneous nude dance performance at Stanford University in 1969 via Larry Keenan - photos of Sexual Freedom League. They're worth checking out!

Continue reading "Flashback to Sexual Freedom: Historic Photo [NSFW]"...

I was browsing eBay for goodies last week when I came across this beautiful photo. Naturally, I grabbed it to share here. The image nagged at me - something about the lanky man getting hugged looked so familiar.

Continue reading "A History Mystery: W.H. Auden Photo(s)"...